Privacy Policy
This site is owned and operated by Hypersite. Your privacy on the Internet is
of the utmost importance to us. At Hypersite, we want to make your experience
online satisfying and safe.
Because we gather certain types of information about our users, we feel you
should fully understand the terms and conditions surrounding the capture and
use of that information. This privacy statement discloses what information we
gather and how we use it.
Hypersite gathers two types of information about users:
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Information that users provide through optional, voluntary submissions. These
are voluntary submissions that may include receiving an electronic newsletters,
participating in message boards or forums, and participation in polls and
surveys.
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Information Hypersite gathers through aggregated tracking information derived
mainly by tallying page views throughout our sites. This information allows us
to better tailor our content to readers' needs and to help any advertisers and
sponsors better understand the demographics of our audience. Under no
circumstances does Hypersite divulge any information about an individual user
to a third party.
Hypersite gathers user information in the following processes:
Optional Voluntary Information
We offer the following free services, which require some type of voluntary
submission of personal information by users:
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Electronic Newsletters (Dispatches)
We will offer a free electronic newsletter to users. Hypersite gathers the
email addresses of users who voluntarily subscribe. Users may remove themselves
from this mailing list by following the link provided in every newsletter that
points users to the subscription management page. Users can also subscribe to
the newsletters at the time of registration.
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Message boards/Forums
Users of the site's Message Boards and Forums must register separately for
these services (both are free of charge) in order to post messages, although
they needn't register to visit the site. During registration the user is
required to supply a username, password, and email address.
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Polling
We may offer interactive polls to users so they can easily share their opinions
with other users and see what our audience thinks about important issues.
Opinions or other responses to polls are aggregated and are not identifiable to
any particular user. Hypersite may use a system to "tag" users after
they have voted, so they can vote only once on a particular question. This tag
is not correlated with information about individual users.
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Surveys
Hypersite may occasionally conduct user surveys to better target our content to
our audience. We sometimes share the aggregated demographic information in
these surveys with our sponsors, advertisers and partners. We never share any
of this information about specific individuals with any third party.
Children
Consistent with the Federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
of 1998 (COPPA), we will never knowingly request personally identifiable
information from anyone under the age of 13 without requesting parental
consent.
Usage Tracking
Hypersite tracks user traffic patterns throughout all
of our sites. However, we do not correlate this information with data about
individual users. Hypersite does break down overall usage statistics according
to a user's domain name, browser type, and MIME type by reading this
information from the browser string (information contained in every user's
browser). Hypersite sometimes tracks and catalogs the search terms that users
enter in our Search function, but this tracking is never associated with
individual users. We use tracking information to determine which areas of our
sites users like and don't like based on traffic to those areas. We do not
track what individual users read, but rather how well each page performs
overall. This helps us continue to build a better service for you.
Cookies
We may place a text file called a "cookie" in the browser files of your
computer. The cookie itself does not contain Personal Information although it
will enable us to relate your use of this site to information that you have
specifically and knowingly provided. But the only personal information a cookie
can contain is information you supply yourself. A cookie can't read data off
your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites. Hypersite uses
cookies to track user traffic patterns (as described above). Our advertising
system delivers a one-time cookie to better track ad impressions and click
rates. You can refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser. If you've
set your browser to warn you before accepting cookies, you will receive the
warning message with each cookie. You do not need to have cookies turned on to
use this site. However, you do need cookies to participate actively in message
boards, forums, polling and surveys.
Use of Information
Hypersite uses any information voluntarily given by our users to enhance their
experience in our network of sites, whether to provide interactive or personalized
elements on the sites or to better prepare future content based on the interests
of our users. As stated above, we use information that users voluntarily provide in
order to send out electronic newsletters and to enable users to participate in
polls, surveys, message boards, and forums. We send out newsletters to
subscribers on a regular schedule (depending on the newsletter), and
occasionally send out special editions when we think subscribers might be
particularly interested in something we are doing. Hypersite never shares
newsletter mailing lists with any third parties, including advertisers,
sponsors or partners. When we use tracking information to determine which areas
of our sites users like and don't like based on traffic to those areas. We do
not track what individual users read, but rather how well each page performs
overall. This helps us continue to build a better service for you. We track
search terms entered in Search function as one of many measures of what
interests our users. But we don't track which terms a particular user enters.
Hypersite creates aggregate reports on user demographics and traffic patterns
for advertisers, sponsors and partners. This allows our advertisers to
advertise more effectively, and allows our users to receive advertisements that
are pertinent to their needs. Because we don't track the usage patterns of
individual users, an advertiser or sponsor will never know that a specific user
clicked their ad. We will not disclose any information about any individual
user except to comply with applicable law or valid legal process or to protect
the personal safety of our users or the public.
Sharing of the Information
Hypersite uses the above-described information to tailor our content to suit
your needs and help our advertisers better understand our audience's
demographics. This is essential to keeping our service free. We will not share
information about individual users with any third party, except to comply with
applicable law or valid legal process or to protect the personal safety of our
users or the public.
Security
Hypersite operates secure data networks protected
by industry standard firewall and password protection systems. Our security and
privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only
authorized individuals have access to the information provided by our
customers.
Opt-out Policy
We give users options wherever necessary and
practical. Such choices include:
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Opting not to register to receive our electronic newsletters.
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Opting not to participate in certain interactive areas, which completely
alleviates the need to gather any personally identifiable information from
our users.
Your Consent
By using this site, you consent to the collection and use of
this information by Hypersite. If we decide to change our privacy policy, we
will post those changes on this page so that you are always aware of what
information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose
it.
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